WASHINGTON â€” The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century after the release of an American contractor held in prison for five years, President Obama announced on Wednesday.

In a deal negotiated during 18 months of secret talks hosted largely by Canada and encouraged by Pope Francis, who hosted a final meeting at the Vatican, Mr. Obama and President RaÃºl Castro of Cuba agreed in a telephone call to put aside decades of hostility to find a new relationship between the United States and the island nation just 90 miles off the American coast.

â€œWe will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries,â€ Mr. Obama said in a nationally televised statement from the White House. The deal will â€œbegin a new chapter among the nations of the Americasâ€ and move beyond a â€œrigid policy that is rooted in events that took place before most of us were born.â€

The surprise announcement represented a dramatic turning point in more than five decades of hostility born in the depths of the Cold War and yet frozen in time long after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Once a geopolitical flash point in a global struggle of ideology and power, Cuba obsessed American leaders of a different era, who sponsored covert schemes like the failed Bay of Pigs operation in 1961 aimed at toppling Fidel Castro, the charismatic revolutionary leader. A Soviet move to station nuclear missiles in Cuba led to a 13-day showdown in 1962 and the most perilous moment of the nuclear era.

In more recent years, the Cuban-American relationship faded in significance yet remained a thorn in the side of multiple presidents who waited for Mr. Castroâ€™s demise and experienced false hope when he passed power to his brother, RaÃºl. Even today, Cuba remains a powerful touchstone in American politics, and critics characterized Mr. Obamaâ€™s diplomatic thaw as appeasement of the hemisphereâ€™s leading dictatorship.

Mr. Obama has long expressed hope of transforming relations with the island nation, an aspiration that remained untenable as long as Cuba held Alan P. Gross, the American government contractor arrested in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in a Cuban prison. In agreeing to free him, Cuba cleared the way for Mr. Obama to take a political risk with the last national election of his presidency behind him.

Mr. Gross traveled on an American government plane back to the United States late Wednesday morning, and the United States sent back three Cuban spies who had been in an American prison since 2001. American officials said the Cuban spies were swapped for a United States intelligence agent who had been in a Cuban prison for nearly 20 years, and said Mr. Gross was not technically part of the swap, but was released separately on â€œhumanitarian grounds.â€

In addition, the United States will ease restrictions on remittances, travel and banking relations, and Cuba will release 53 Cuban prisoners identified as political prisoners by the United States government. Although the decades-old American embargo on Cuba will remain in place for now, the president called for an â€œhonest and serious debate about liftingâ€ it, which would require an act of Congress.

â€œThese 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked,â€ Mr. Obama said. â€œItâ€™s time for a new approach.â€

Addressing critics of his new approach, he said he shares their commitment to freedom. â€œThe question is how we uphold that commitment,â€ he said. â€œI do not believe we can keep doing the same thing for over five decades and expect a different result.â€

Mr. Castro spoke simultaneously on Cuban television, taking to the airwaves with no introduction and announcing that he had spoken by telephone with Mr. Obama.

â€œWe have been able to make headway in the solution of some topics of mutual interest for both nations,â€ he announced, emphasizing the release of the three Cubans. â€œPresident Obamaâ€™s decision deserves the respect and acknowledgment of our people.â€

Only afterward did he mention the reopening of diplomatic relations. â€œThis in no way means that the heart of the matter has been resolved,â€ he said. â€œThe economic, commercial and financial blockade, which causes enormous human and economic damages to our country, must cease.â€ But, he added, â€œthe progress made in our exchanges proves that it is possible to find solutions to many problems.â€

Mr. Castro acknowledged that Mr. Obama was easing the blockade through his executive authority and called on the United States government to go further to â€œremove the obstacles that impede or restrict the links between our peoples, the families and the citizens of both our countries.â€

Mr. Gross, accompanied by his wife, Judy, and three members of Congress, landed at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington shortly before noon. His sister, Bonnie Rubinstein, was â€œbeyond ecstaticâ€ at the news, according to her husband, Harold. â€œWe are extremely grateful that heâ€™s on his way home,â€ Mr. Rubinstein said by telephone from Dallas. â€œItâ€™s been a long ordeal.â€

Secretary of State John Kerry landed at Andrews shortly afterward and met with Mr. Gross, his wife, other members of his family and his lawyer, Scott Gilbert. While the meeting was unplanned, a State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said it gave Mr. Kerry a chance to â€œexpress his overwhelming happiness that Alan Gross is now free and reunited with his family on American soil.â€

At a news conference in Washington, Mr. Gross said he supported Mr. Obamaâ€™s move toward normalizing relations with Cuba, adding that his own ordeal and the injustice with which Cuban people have been treated were â€œa consequence of two governmentsâ€™ mutually belligerent policies.â€

â€œFive and a half decades of history show us that such belligerence inhibits better judgment,â€ Mr. Gross said. â€œTwo wrongs never make a right. This is a game-changer, which I fully support.â€

Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida and a son of Cuban immigrants who may run for president in 2016, denounced the new policy as â€œanother concession to a tyrannyâ€ and a sign that Mr. Obamaâ€™s administration is â€œwillfully ignorant of the way the world truly works.â€

â€œThis entire policy shift announced today is based on an illusion, on a lie, the lie and the illusion that more commerce and access to money and goods will translate to political freedom for the Cuban people,â€ Mr. Rubio said. â€œAll this is going to do is give the Castro regime, which controls every aspect of Cuban life, the opportunity to manipulate these changes to perpetuate itself in power.â€

Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey and the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, was also sharply critical. â€œLetâ€™s be clear, this was not a â€˜humanitarianâ€™ act by the Castro regime. It was a swap of convicted spies for an innocent American,â€ Mr. Menendez said in a written statement. â€œPresident Obamaâ€™s actions have vindicated the brutal behavior of the Cuban government.â€

Mr. Obama spoke with Mr. Castro by telephone on Tuesday to finalize the agreement in a call that lasted more than 45 minutes, the first direct contact between the leaders of the two countries in more than 50 years, American officials said.

Diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba were severed in January 1961 after the rise of Fidel Castro and his Communist government. Mr. Obama has instructed Mr. Kerry to immediately initiate discussions with Cuba about re-establishing diplomatic relations and to begin the process of removing Cuba from the list of states that sponsor terrorism, which it has been on since 1982, the White House said.

Officials said they would re-establish an embassy in Havana and carry out high-level exchanges and visits between the two governments within months. Mr. Obama will send an assistant secretary of state to Havana next month for talks on Cuban-American migration and will attend a Summit of the Americas meeting along with Mr. Castro. The United States will begin working with Cuba on issues like counternarcotics, environmental protection and human trafficking.

The United States will also ease travel restrictions across all 12 categories currently envisioned under limited circumstances in American law, including family visits, official visits, journalistic, professional, educational and religious activities, and public performances, officials said. Ordinary tourism, however, will remain prohibited.

Mr. Obama will also allow greater banking ties, making it possible to use debit cards in Cuba, and raise the level of remittances allowed to be sent to Cuban nationals to $2,000 every three months from the current limit of $500. Intermediaries forwarding remittances will no longer require a specific license from the government.

American travelers will also be allowed to import up to $400 worth of goods from Cuba, including up to $100 in tobacco and alcohol products.

The Vatican hailed the agreement. â€œThe Holy Father wishes to express his warm congratulations for the historic decision taken by the governments of the United States of America and Cuba to establish diplomatic relations, with the aim of overcoming, in the interest of the citizens of both countries, the difficulties which have marked their recent history,â€ it said in a statement.

Mr. Grossâ€™s health has been failing. He reportedly lost more than 100 pounds in prison and is losing vision in his right eye. He went on a nine-day hunger strike in April. After turning 65 in May, he told relatives that he might try to kill himself if not released soon.

Three members of Congress were on the plane that picked up Mr. Gross in Cuba on Wednesday and accompanied him back to the United States, officials said: Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, and Representative Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland.

Mr. Gross was in Cuba to deliver satellite telephone equipment that was capable of cloaking connections to the Internet when he was arrested in 2009. The Cuban authorities, who tightly control access to the Internet in their country, initially said he was a spy, and a court there convicted him of bringing in the devices without a permit as part of a subversive plot to â€œdestroy the revolution.â€

Mr. Grossâ€™s case drew increasing attention as his health deteriorated. He grew despondent and talked of suicide, and his wife, Judy Gross, and other supporters made urgent pleas for his release, but off-and-on diplomatic talks seemed to go nowhere.

Cuba has often raised the case of three of its spies serving federal prison time in Florida, saying they had been prosecuted unjustly and urging that they be released on humanitarian grounds. State Department officials insisted that the cases were not comparable and that Mr. Gross was not an intelligence agent.

The three Cuban agents were part of the Red Avispa, or the Wasp Network, in Florida along with two other Cuban agents. Mr. Obama used his clemency power to commute their sentences, and they were flown to Cuba by the United States Marshals Service, according to the Justice Department.

The unnamed United States intelligence agent traded for them returned to American soil on Wednesday as well. That agent, described by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence only as â€œa Cuban individual,â€ has been imprisoned in Cuba for nearly two decades.

â€œIn light of his sacrifice on behalf of the United States, securing his release from prison after 20 years â€” in a swap for three of the Cuban spies he helped put behind bars â€” is fitting closure to this Cold War chapter of U.S.-Cuban relations,â€ the intelligence directorâ€™s office said in a statement.

Mr. Gross worked for Development Alternatives, of Bethesda, Md., and had traveled to more than 50 countries as an international development worker. The company had a $6 million contract with the United States Agency for International Development to distribute equipment that could get around Cubaâ€™s Internet blockade, and Mr. Gross had made four previous trips to Cuba in 2009.

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, the former New Mexico governor and cabinet secretary Bill Richardson and several members of Congress appealed for Mr. Grossâ€™s release, along with Jewish advocacy groups in the United States.

After visiting Mr. Gross in November, Mr. Flake, a longtime advocate of loosening the 50-year-old American trade embargo with Cuba, said he was optimistic that the case would be resolved.

American lawmakers who have drawn attention to Mr. Grossâ€™s case celebrated his departure from Cuba. â€œToday, news of Alanâ€™s release brings great relief to his loved ones and to every American who has called for his freedom,â€ said Senator Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas. â€œI admire Alanâ€™s strength and that of his wife Judy, who has worked tirelessly for years to free Alan and reunite her family.â€

The American government has spent $264 million over the last 18 years, much of it through the development agency, in an effort to spur democratic change in Cuba. The agency said in November that it would cease the kinds of operations that Mr. Gross was involved in when he was arrested, as well as those, disclosed by The Associated Press, that allowed a contractor to set up a Twitter-like social network that hid its ties to the United States government.

Raul Castro may have potentially made a fatal mistake that risks destroying everything the Cuban Revolution built over the past half century. By entering into a deal with the US, heâ€™s letting the wily Color Revolution fox into the hen house, and heâ€™s also betraying his multipolar Russian ally at the same time.

Havana and Washington entered into a surprise deal yesterday to historically restore their relations after engaging in a high-profile prisoner swap. Nobody was expecting such a major development to occur, making many wonder how such an impactful decision could be kept under wraps for so long. The reason being was likely that the US understood what a major hemispheric power play this was and wanted to do everything to safeguard its secret strategy. On the contrary, Cuba, whether its leadership realizes it or not, has everything to lose, and itâ€™s clear from the details that Washington was â€˜negotiatingâ€™ from a position of strength. While Raul may have thought he could outmaneuver the imminent Color Revolution attempt that will occur after Fidelâ€™s death, he may have actually committed a Yanukovich-esque tactical mistake by trying to enter into agreement with the same forces obsessed with his ouster.

Modern Lessons
Before diving in to the nitty-gritty of Raulâ€™s decision, it is necessary to quickly take an overview of two monumental lessons of the past few years that should not have been lost on any global leader:

The Gaddafi Gamble:
The Libyan leader thought that he could safeguard his state by getting rid of his weapons of mass destruction without a Great Power negotiating on his side (as Russia did for Syria), but in reality, he unwittingly sold his country out.

The Yanukovich â€œYes!â€:
By saying â€œYes!â€ to working with the Color Revolutionary forces inside the country, Yanukovich guaranteed that his days would be numbered from then on out.

Lessons Lost
Raul somehow managed to not learn any of these lessons and risks the colossal mistake of abrogating both of them. Cuba is suspected of having some type of limited biological weapons program, although the true extent of it is unknown. Nonetheless, if Cuba does have some element of this (which the US has accused it of), then itâ€™s all but assured that it was a bargaining chip in the deal with the US. Although it is only speculative at the time, it could be that the US changed its regime change precondition for the restoration of ties to an ultimatum over getting rid of that Cubaâ€™s bioweapons program. If this was the case, the Raulâ€™s fate will be as good as Gaddafiâ€™s.

But what is certain in this situation is that Raul is following in Yanukovichâ€™s footsteps by trying to save his own skin through convoluted Machiavellian games. Fidel is a likely a lot closer to death than the Cuban government is letting on, and Raul knows that the moment his brother passes away, the Color Revolution will officially be initiated. He thought he could preempt large-scale disturbances among the portion of the population with legitimate grievances that could be manipulated by the US through a proactive deal with Washington. But just like Yanukovich committed a flagrant folly through his â€˜reach outâ€™ attempts to the â€˜oppositionâ€™, so too is Raul doing the exact same thing by working with the US. The difference is, Yanukovich dealt with the proxies, but Raul is politicking with the puppet masters themselves, who are much more experienced at the art of manipulation than the throw-away â€˜oppositionâ€™ is.

Whoâ€™s Really Calling The Shots
On the surface, it appears as though the deal was relatively fair and even, with both sides getting what they wanted plus the future prospect of limitless mutual benefit through the restoration of relations. Sure, Cuba regained its three heroes and this was a symbolic success for the government, but itâ€™s the US that really called the shots in this â€˜dealâ€™. It dictated which of the 53 â€˜political prisonersâ€™ would be released (another condition for the restoration of ties), and not only that, but theyâ€™re free to walk about the island and go right back to their subversive activities.

In essence, Raul just created 53 untouchable Aung San Suu Kyiâ€™s that are all but guaranteed to form the core of the public Color Revolutionary elite. After all, so much global publicity has been expended on this deal, that there is close to no possibility that Raulâ€™s government would take the risk of rough handling them in the future, regardless of their provocations, as the global information warfare potential against the government would be too great at that point. He walked right into a trap, and the imminent Color Revolution will now either sweep him from power, or heâ€™ll be forced into conceding everything away and dismantling the country by his own hand as dictated from abroad via the internal (now permanent) proxies.

Reacting Against Russia
The US likely sweetened the deal with some behind-the-scenes economic incentives in order to facilitate its conclusion as soon as possible due to the Russia factor. Putin made a surprise visit to the island in July en route to the BRICS Summit in Brazil, and during his stay there, he announced that Russia was forgiving $32 billion of Cubaâ€™s debt, which was 90% of the total. In exchange, it was rumored that Moscow would be reopening the Soviet-era signals intelligence base in Lourdes, which considering the tense climate of the New Cold War, would have been a massive strategic detriment for the US. With this in mind, the US immediately set off to seduce Cuba.

This means that the US-Cuba deal must absolutely be viewed in the prism of current geopolitical rivalry with Russia. With that in mind, Washington scored an even larger victory than it initially seems. Russia obviously had its own secret plans for Cuba when Putin made his unannounced visit to the country over the summer, but it seems like the US has nullified them before they could get off the ground, since there is no way the US would allow Cuba to retain such a facility as part of the deal. If this was the case, then Russia is out $32 billion for an investment that will never see the light of day (made even worse by the economic war being waged against it at the moment), while Raulâ€™s government can cozy up comfortably with dollars in their pocket from newfound American investors. Howâ€™s that for betrayal after Moscow risked a nuclear war to protect that very same government from regime change over half a century ago?

The Bigger Picture
Cuba represents the symbol of the global anti-imperialist movement and its soft power is certainly disproportionate to its size (and rightfully so). Nonetheless, like many things in life, this massive advantage also has an equally negative disadvantage, in that if Cuba betrays its ideological foundation and allies with the US, then it would also be betraying its multipolar allies in the region, specifically Venezuela. In recent years, Caracas has succeeded Havana as the capital most actively resisting American dominance in the region, largely due to the astronomical economic benefits that come with its natural resources largesse, but the two states are still fraternal brothers in the cause, and Venezuelaâ€™s leaders are said to sometimes take their political cues from Cuba. But, if Cuba really did double deal against its allies and is now buddy-buddy with the US, then Venezuela would be the first country to be most directly affected by this political reorientation.
As the de-facto leader of the Resistant and Defiant (R&D) Latin American states, Venezuela would no longer have the symbolic ally that gave it this â€˜legitimacyâ€™. In fact, if it turns out that both states have divergent views vis-Ã -vis the US, this could create a Brzezinski-esque intra-R&D spat that could spill over into an all-out split, much like the Sino-Soviet one of decades past. That would be absolutely disastrous for the R&D Latin American movement as well as for overall multipolarity, and combined with u3_Latin-America-Map1falling oil revenues, new American sanctions, the potential for war with American-proxy Colombia, and the ever-present Color Revolution threat haunting Veneuzela, the prospects of a regime change operation succeed there significantly increases. If Venezuela should fall, the rest of the R&D states connected to its network (Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia, and the smaller Caribbean states of ALBA) would react like dominos and follow in its path.

Concluding Thoughts
The grand strategic vision that the US wants to set out to achieve is to overthrow the most active R&D governments in Latin America and complete an effective encirclement of Brazil in order to strangle multipolarityâ€™s future in the Western Hemisphere. This would in effect neutralize the entire North and South American landmasses and turn them into a de-facto pro-American reserve, much as they used to be over a century ago. This time, however, the US will have a strategic redoubt to retreat to should its Brzezinski-style chaos succeed in Eurasia, as â€˜Fortress America(s)â€™ would not only provide it with all of the natural resources it needs to be economically self-sufficient, but pure geopolitics dictates that it would be insulated from the vast majority of the supercontinentâ€™s meltdown. Thus, if the US succeeds in retaking the Caribbean via the Cuban card and can penetrate ALBA enough to the point of dividing its leadership and dissolving the alliance, then it will be more than able to â€˜safelyâ€™ destroy Eurasia with the least amount of repercussions to its own supercontinental interests (North and South America).

Raul Castro may have potentially made a fatal mistake that risks destroying everything the Cuban Revolution built over the past half century. By entering into a deal with the US, heâ€™s letting the wily Color Revolution fox into the hen house, and heâ€™s also betraying his multipolar Russian ally at the same time.

The normalization of relations is long overdue. I think the diplomatic and political embargo of the US on Cuba is short sighted and mainly driven by its internal politics (Cuban-American lobby). The sooner these 2 countries can normalize all facets of their relationships the better it is going to be for their people.

The surprise to me is on the boldness of Obama. He has shown leadership here. I think this is one of his major foreign policy aims when he became President. But between Iran and Cuba, normalization would be far easier with the latter than the former.

The attitude of the US towards Cuba was actually an ego issue that Castro could defeat the might of the US which was supporting the dictator, Fulgencio Batista. who was being bankrolled by the US business interest which Batista wanted to protect.

This is what John F Kennedy said

"I believe that there is no country in the world including any and all the countries under colonial domination, where economic colonization, humiliation and exploitation were worse than in Cuba, in part owing to my countryâ€™s policies during the Batista regime. I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will even go further: to some extent it is as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries. That is perfectly clear."
â€” U.S. President John F. Kennedy, interview with Jean Daniel, 24 October 1963

This is a welcome move by Obama. Cubans have suffered long enough living on scraps and recycled materials.

Let's just hope this does not create another Batista or Guevara.

Click to expand...

Actually that was the aim of the US - that Cubans live on scraps and recycled materials and then overthrow Castro so that US business house go all guns firing to make it the banana republic it was during Batista's time.

It appears better sense has prevailed in the US Administration, though it will not be a welcomed move for many Cuban expatriates and some roughneck hill billy minded US politicians.

The normalization of relations is long overdue. I think the diplomatic and political embargo of the US on Cuba is short sighted and mainly driven by its internal politics (Cuban-American lobby). The sooner these 2 countries can normalize all facets of their relationships the better it is going to be for their people.

The surprise to me is on the boldness of Obama. He has shown leadership here. I think this is one of his major foreign policy aims when he became President. But between Iran and Cuba, normalization would be far easier with the latter than the former.

Cuban MPs cry as they watch President Raul Castro speak on television in Havana

hey crowded around old, battered televisions in Havana and erupted in tears and applause at a spectacle they could scarcely imagine, let alone believe: President RaÃºl Castro, followed by President Obama, heralding a new era of relations between Cuba and the United States.

As politically charged as Obama's new stance may be in the US, the sweeping changes he outlined yesterday will have a much more profound impact on Cuba - where isolation by the US has fundamentally shaped the island's economy, its politics and even its sense of national identity.

For decades, the American embargo of Cuba has been the political sword and shield of the Castros, held responsible for stifling their nation's development, depriving their people of the most basic needs, and justifying their tight control over all aspects of society.

Now their powerful rival is promising significant expansions in travel, exports and remittances to Cuba, the biggest erosion of the embargo since it was imposed more than 50 years ago.

Experts say it will bring a flood of new money to the island, potentially injecting new life into the economy and, coupled with restored diplomatic ties, transforming relations between the two countries in ways not seen since a bearded rebel named Fidel came down from the Cuban mountains.

"This changes it all," Carlos Alzugaray, a former Cuban diplomat who is close to the Castros, said from the island.

The question is whether the increased exchange will simply prop up Cuba's moribund economy and government, or breed truly democratic change on the island, something current American policy has not achieved.

"For Cuba, this is an opportunity to speed up the processes of economic reform, political liberalisation and openness," said Arturo Lopez-Levy, a former Cuban intelligence analyst now at New York University.

Others were more sceptical, having seen previous thaws that did not produce dramatic change. They noted the 1996 American law known as Helms-Burton that prevents widespread commerce, and questioned Cuba's willingness to open up as well.

For many Cubans living through the incremental steps towards private enterprise that Castro set in motion, the changes are welcomed as much for their practical worth as for the historic sea change between governments.

(Left) Peter Bell, who supports President Obamaâ€™s new Cuban policy, argues with people who disagree with him outside Little Havanaâ€™s Versailles restaurant in Miami.

From the raucous cafecito counter at Versailles restaurant, the city's Cuban touchstone, to the noisy streets in and beyond Little Havana, Miami's Cuban exiles expressed astonishment over the seismic news that the US was liberalising relations with Cuba.

But, in a city with more Cubans than anywhere but Cuba, agreement over the momentous announcement ended there.

For some - the ageing generation of Cuban-American traditionalists who take a hard line on Cuba policy - astonishment quickly turned to acrimony. Denouncing the move as wrongheaded and disastrous, they viewed President Obama's decision to establish closer travel, diplomatic and export ties to Cuba as capitulation to a dictatorship.

In return, they said, Obama received no guarantees from Cuba's President, RaÃºl Castro, and no commitment to human rights.

"There have been too many deaths, too much blood and too much terror, and there is no reason to throw them a life preserver," said Alex Rodriguez, 63, who stood outside Versailles, describing himself as a man who wears "two hats" - American and Cuban.

"The Cuban people, from the human rights perspective, still won't have the freedom to vote, the freedom of expression, the freedom of assembly, the freedom to determine their own economic future"

Yet a different wave of people applauded the decision, calling it past due. They make up a less vocal, less politically active but nevertheless large part of the city's makeup - recently arrived Cubans who continue to stream in from the island and younger Cuban-Americans who are less emotionally entangled in the relationship between Cuba and Miami.

For them, the announcement is recognition that in five decades of Cold War, anti-Castro sanctions have failed to achieve their goal: Bring down the Castro brothers and usher democracy into Cuba.

"I think it's time to leave all that behind," Yadira Sebasco, 36, who was born in CamagÃ¼ey, Cuba's third-largest city, and moved to Miami 11 years ago, said.

Even some of the "historicos", as the older generation is called, have softened their views, recognising the lack of democratic progress in Cuba. Laureano Vilches, 71, stewed for decades over the fact that his family's business, a refrigerated warehouse in Havana, was seized by the communist government. But today, he has set aside his outrage.

"As far as I'm concerned, this can only be good for the Cubans who are still there, and they'll live a better life economically," said Vilches, who went 40 years without setting foot in Cuba but now visits every couple of months.

Cuban policy shift is not the only shift which Obama is planning in last two years in the office. He has already changed the dynamics by ignoring Congress on Immigration rules. He has got his way in the Health care laws, although his opponents have opposed tooth and nail. They may still try, but he will veto any change.

Watch carefully, he is about ready to dump the opposition to Indo-US Nuclear deal in US and begin the long awaited export of commercial nuclear reactors. India has to play ball in these discussions, just as Castro brothers played ball with US in eliminating hurdles in US-Cuba normalization. That will be a good pointer to that Anti -Indian lobby which operates in the State Department. Also commercial nuclear trade will bring in a lot more FDI, I mean brick and mortar money than money in the stock market. The former is a lot more useful from Indian stand point that it does not fly away at the slightest hint of global financial trouble.

Not merely a posturing. Kim's envoy visited Russia lately for talks abt leasing Russian lands for farming - quite a positive move to develop its vast far east of a tiny populace in millions. Also bear in mind the trans-Korea pipeline proposal to diversify its energy markets.

Also Russia waived 90% of NK's debt to SU and the balance remains as in a joint development fund.

One aide slipped off a Hillary Rodham Clinton trip in Paris and flew to the Persian Gulf. Two others ducked out of the White House periodically to catch commercial flights to Ottawa or Toronto. A top adviser vanished from the West Wing during the waning weeks of the midterm election campaign to travel to Beijing.

Three of President Barack Obama's top diplomatic achievements - the reopening of ties with Cuba, announced this week; the interim nuclear agreement with Iran and the climate-change pact with China - resulted from secret negotiations. Some were conducted in exotic locales like the Vatican and the Arab sultanate of Oman; others in less exotic places like Boston.

Not since Henry Kissinger's secret trip to China in 1971 has a President embraced undercover diplomacy with the enthusiasm of Obama. For an administration that likes to promote its transparency, this White House has concluded that some deals are best pursued with all the openness of a drone strike against distant terrorists.

What the Cuba, Iran and China talks have in common - aside from their cloak-and-dagger allure - are a small team of negotiators, strict discipline and tight control by the White House. They also attest to Obama's willingness to entrust historic projects to close aides, some of whom are young and have little experience in diplomacy.

In the case of Cuba, the entire American delegation consisted of two White House officials, one of whom, Benjamin J. Rhodes, is a 37-year-old speechwriter who has worked for Obama since his 2008 campaign and has become an influential voice in the administration. The Iran and China negotiations were also led by trusted Obama aides.

Using non-diplomats helps preserve the veil of secrecy, a senior official said, because such people are less likely to arouse suspicion among colleagues or the media. The three countries with which they were negotiating, the official said, were also able to keep a secret.

"Negotiations are like mushrooms: They grow in the dark," said Martin S. Indyk, the director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. "That's especially true of negotiations between longtime adversaries, where the domestic politics on both sides make it impossible to reach a deal if the negotiations are conducted in public."

Indyk knows firsthand the hazards of conducting diplomacy in open view. As the administration's special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, he struggled to bring together distrustful parties under a white-hot media glare. While the details of the talks were kept under wraps, the very public nature of the process made it vulnerable to scrutiny from all sides.

The last time Washington had a vigorous debate over the need for secrecy in diplomacy was in 2010 when WikiLeaks released 250,000 confidential State Department cables, forcing the Obama administration to mend fences with foreign leaders and others who had been slighted in the reports that diplomats sent in from the field.

The damage from the WikiLeaks disclosures proved less severe or long-lasting than many people in the government predicted. But it did nothing to dissuade the Obama administration that fledgling initiatives needed to be shielded from the public and the media.

December 19, 2014 Last year, President Obama's end of year press conference began with a sharp question: "Was this the worst year of your presidency?" One year later, at his presser before departing for Hawaii, Obama shouldn't have expected much better.

It's been a taxing political year for the president. His party lost control of the Senate, and the Republicans have gained more seats in the House. Without action from Congress, Obama moved forward pm his own as he sought to protect millions of immigrants from deportation with a stroke of his pen. It's been a year marred with unforeseen racial tensions at home and the rise of ISIS abroad. In his final press conference, however, Obama tried to establish that he may be facing his final two years with a Republican-controlled Congress, but he's not prepared to be a lame duck just yet.

And ever true to his year-end style, the president began with cheese. "All I want for Christmas," he said, "is to take your questions."

With just eight questions, the conference was shorter than expected. And the president called only on female reporters. Before leaving for vacation, he'll be interviewed by one more: CNN's Candy Crowley.

The first question of the conference was on North Korea, and Obama quickly made news.

President Obama said that Sony made "a mistake" by choosing to pull the release of The Interview due to North Korea's devastating hack on the company's computer systems.

"Sony is a corporation; it suffered significant damage. There were threats against its employees. I am sympathetic to the concerns they face," Obama said. "Having said that, yes, I think they made a mistake."

"We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here in the United States," he said.

Obama also made it clear he wasn't consulted on the decision to pull the film. "I wish they would have spoken to me first."

The president also tried to ensure that Sony's decision would not create a precedent. "Occasionally there are going to be breaches likes this," he said. "They are going to be costly, they are going to be serious â€¦ but we can't start changing our patterns of behavior anymore than we can stop going to a football game because there might be the possibility of a terrorist attack," Obama said. "Let's not get into that way of doing business."

The FBI announced earlier Friday it had concluded the Communist regime in North Korea was behind the Sony hack.

Obama criticized the oppressive North Korean regime for going to such extreme lengths to prevent the release of a satirical film that includes a scene depicting the assassination of its dictator, Kim Jong-Un.

"It says something of interest about North Korea that they decided to have the state mount an all-out assault on a movie studio because of a movie starring Seth Rogen and James Flacco," Obama said, seemingly confusing actor James Franco's name with that of Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco (prompting this corrective tweet from the QB). "I love Seth. I love James. But the notion that that was a threat to them I think gives you some sense of the kind of regime we're talking about here."

Obama also said that the U.S. would respond to the cyberattack but gave no specifics, only noting: "We will respond. We will respond proportionally and in a manner that we choose."

The president also said there was no intelligence to suggest North Korea was aided by other countries, despite reports this week that China may have been linked to the attack.

On Cuba

Obama said that diplomatically engaging with Cuba is more likely to bring about positive change in the island nation than the decades-old policy of isolation. "What I know deep in my bones is that if you have done the same thing for 50 years, and nothing has changed, you should try something different if you want a different outcome," Obama said. "And this gives us an opportunity for a different outcome."

"Through engagement, we have a better chance of bringing about change than we would have otherwise."

Just this week, Obama signaled the major policy shift, announcing a number of changes that would loosen regulations on travel, business, and finance. The changes, which will likely begin to go into effect in the coming months, will make it easier for Americans to visit Cuba, spend money there, and bring goodsâ€”including, yes, cigarsâ€”back.

But that doesn't mean Obama is headed to Cuba anytime very soon. "We're not at a stage here where me visiting Cuba ... is in the cards," he said.

Obama also recounted an exchange with Cuban President RaÃºl Castro on the phone last week for reporters. He said he spent 15 minutes making opening remarks, "which on the phone is a pretty long time," and apologized for speaking at length. President Castro responded by telling him about a time his brother, Fidel, spoke for seven hours straight. "And then President Castro proceeded to deliver his own preliminary remarks that lasted at least twice as long as mine," Obama said, "And then I was able to say, 'Obviously, it runs in the family.' "

The president has come under fire from Democratic and Republican members of Congress for the policy shift. Leading congressional dissidents Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who called Obama the worst negotiator in modern U.S. history.

On Race

"Like the rest of America, black America in the aggregate is better off now than it was when I came into office," Obama said Friday, citing the growth of economic opportunity.

However, he noted that the gap between income and wealth in black America "persists."

Obama said there's "a growing awareness in the broader population of what many communities of color have understood for some time, and that is there are specific instances at least where law enforcement doesn't feel as if it's being applied in a color-blind fashion."

The president was careful to put the current situation in an optimistic light, though. "But I actually think it's been a healthy conversation that we've had," Obama said. "These are not new phenomena. The fact that they are now surfacing, in part because people are able to film what have just been in the past stories passed on along a kitchen table, allows people to make their own assessments and evaluations and you're not going to solve the problem if it's not being talked about."

Race relations have emerged as a major source of tension within the U.S. in recent months after grand juries in New York City and Ferguson, Mo., in two separate incidences, did not indict police officers for killing unarmed black men. The moves sparked outrage and protests in cities around the country. A new Gallup Poll shows that 13 percent of Americans believe today that racism is the most important issue the country is facing. That's a sudden jump from the 1 percent who felt that way at the beginning of November.

Americans have not been as concerned about race since 1992 after construction worker Rodney King was badly beaten by Los Angeles police and the incident was videotaped. Obama made a commitment earlier during a meeting with civil-rights leaders to focus on tearing down racial barriers in the final month of his presidency. The White House has pledged to spend $75 million on body cameras for police and the administration released a report in December highlighting the problems of giving police departments previously used military equipment.

"We have more work to do on that front," Obama said at the presser. "This was a legacy of a troubled racial past of Jim Crow and slavery."

On Congress

The president made it clear that despite a long and bitter relationship with Congress, he is prepared to make a new start with the Republican-controlled body next year.

"I want to work the this new Congress to get things done," he said Friday.

Obama pointed to the most recent spending bill that passed out of Congress as a sign of things to come. The "cromnibus" bill included plenty for Republicans and Democrats to be upset about, but moderates from both parties came together to pass the legislation.

The president also called on Congress to help build a stronger defense against cybersecurity attacks like the ones mounted recently. He also outlined that tax reform was another potential area where Congress and the White House could work together. The president said he was looking for more "simplicity" and "fairness."

"There are companies that are parking money outside the country because of tax avoidance," Obama said. "We think it is important everyone pays something."

Obama said that he hopes that the Republican Congress would be able to tackle corporate tax reform, lower rates, and eliminate loopholes while also providing a "mechanism" where infrastructure could get built.

The president acknowledged that he cannot unilaterally bring down the trade embargo against Cuba. So far, the Republican Party is divided on the issue, but incoming Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he sympathizes with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who is opposed to the new relaxation of relations with Cuba.

"I think there are real opportunities to get things done in Congress," Obama said. Still, the president warned Republicans that he would not be backing down on key issues that have been the core of his presidency issues like health care and consumer protections.

On the Economy

On the economy, Obama said in his opening statement that the U.S. saw its strongest year of job growth since the 1990s, adding that U.S. businesses have created nearly 11 million jobs this year. He said the country needs to "make sure that the middle class is the engine that powers our prosperity for decades to come."

He noted that nearly all of the jobs added have been in full-time positions, and have seen recent pickup in higher-paying industries.

The president focused particularly on the role played by manufacturing, the energy sector, and the auto industry in driving the American economy. Obama said the U.S. is now the top producer of oil and natural gas in the world, and that drivers have saved 77 cents a gallon on gas compared with last year.

Obama declared the "rescue" of the auto industry "officially over," saying the government has repaid taxpayers "every dime and over" for the $80 billion bailout the government gave the auto industry starting with the recession in 2008. This year, Obama said, the auto industry created 500,000 new jobs.

On His Own Presidency

Despite his lame-duck status, Obama said he wouldn't stop working for ordinary Americans in the two years ahead. He also made a basketball reference, telling reporters he was excited for the final part of his term.

"My presidency is entering the fourth quarter," he said. "Interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter. And I'm looking forward to it."

As for his controversial executive action on immigration last month, he took a hard line against an incoming Republican Congress that has vowed to fight him on that issue and others, defending his decision to use his unilateral authority.

He warned congressional Republicans that he intends to "continue to do what I've been doing," in using those orders, "which is where I see a big problem and the opportunity to help the American people, and it is within my lawful authority to provide that help, I'm going to do it."

Though he did offer an olive branchâ€”in the form of a truncated lesson on how a bill becomes a lawâ€”it will almost certainly draw the ire of Republican leaders.

"There's a very simple solution, and that's pass bills and work with me to make sure I'm willing to sign those bills," he said. "Because both sides are going to have to compromise. On most issues, in order for their initiatives to become law, I'm going to have to sign off, and that means they have to take into account the issues that I care about, just as I'm going have to take into account the issues that they care about."

Fin

Obama ended the news conference on a hopeful note on the American character. "What I don't think is always captured in our political debates is that the vast majority of people are just trying to do the right thing, and people are basically good and have good intentions," he said. "America knows how to solve problems. And when we work together, we can't be stopped."

Before he stepped away from the podium, the president signed off in Hawaiian. "And now I'm going to go on vacation. Mele Kalikimaka, everybody," he said, which means "Merry Christmas."

Not merely a posturing. Kim's envoy visited Russia lately for talks abt leasing Russian lands for farming - quite a positive move to develop its vast far east of a tiny populace in millions. Also bear in mind the trans-Korea pipeline proposal to diversify its energy markets.

Also Russia waived 90% of NK's debt to SU and the balance remains as in a joint development fund.

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Nice deals. It seems that it is only Russia the NoKor is not doing the blackmail beggaring (which it does even to China). These 2 countries or at least their leaders must be soulmates. Now I can't wait to download their photo together...

India must be looking at this development positively. Having good, stable relation with the US will be extremely beneficial for India economically and strategically. There exists an influential cold-war lobby in the US which cannot think out of the box, once the US administration gets rid of those people it will get more friends and bigger markets to sell it's goods. By signing a nuclear deal with Russia India has sent a message to these people in the US administration, if the US refuses there are other willing partners and the US must not throw away such opportunities.